Evidentiary Uncertainty and Negligence Rules

Yoon-Ha Yoo

Professor, KDI School of Public Policy and Management, 207-43 Chongnyangni-2-dong, Dongdaemun-ku, Seoul 130-868, Korea, Tel: +82-2-3299-1013, Fax: +82-2-968-5072 yhy@kdischool.ac.kr

JEL Classfication: K13

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effects of evidentiary uncertainty on people's incentives to abide by rules in the context of negligence rules in tort law. It demonstrates that i) the comparative negligence rule is not necessarily superior to the simple or the contributory negligence rule, ii) an application of lenient standards of due care under the contributory negligence rule than in comparative negligence rule would not necessarily restore social efficiency, and iii) a partial reduction of legal uncertainty would not necessarily improve social efficiency. These results contrast previous theoretical literature.

Keywords:

Tort law, Negligence rule, Legal uncertainty

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